Wednesday, December 06, 2006
A Night At The Opry
A few weeks ago, TFMCD approached me with an idea from her Mom - she wanted us to go with her to the Arizona Opry in Apache Junction, along with a bunch of her friends from what is primarily a winter-visitor trailer park.
Say it ain't so.....PLEASE.
So The Crime Dog was less than thrilled by the prospect of sitting through a show loaded with Branson wannabes, along with a multi-state consortium of blue hairs and RV jockeys.
But what the hell? I love pretty much any live music, and besides, it's a Christmas show. How bad can it be? So off we went last night to burgeoning and cosmopolitan Apache Junction. At least it was after dark, so maybe I wouldn't be dodging golf carts and those bicycles with 10' orange flags, towing golf clubs.
TFMCD and I were the youngest people in the joint, by a good 20 years. The theater is bare-bones, consisting of a big room with a bunch of long tables and folding chairs. It looked like a church social.
Please, God. Don't let them ask me to bless the food.
But, much to my surprise: They have a bar! Over in the corner, plenty of cold beer, get 'em now cause the bar closes when the show starts, pal. The food showed up, looking only marginally better than something from a high-school cafeteria. But I was hungry, and have never been accused of being picky, so I first selected the least attractive thing on the plate: coleslaw. Hell, I don't even like good coleslaw, but my theory was that by picking the worst first, the rest might be passable in comparison. Down the hatch.
Whoa! What's this? Can it be? This stuff is actually GOOD??
OK, beginner's luck. I'll take a hit of the mashed potatoes. Surely, they are of the "just add boiling water" variety. Better suited for school paste, no doubt.
Hmmmm. Delicious. Two for two. What manner of outrage is this?
The roast beef was tender, juicy, and tasty. The gravy? Top notch. Now, I ain't talking' mom's roast beast here, but this was easily among the best mass-produced and mass-served dinners I've ever had. And we hadn't even gotten to the entertainment yet.
Guitarist Bill Wells is a delight - especially on his instrumental version of Jose Feliciano's Feliz Navidad. He plays several different guitars, including a double neck, and has a fun stage presence. I was able to chat briefly with him during the intermission, and he seemed to be a genuinely nice and engaging guy. I wish he would teach me how he plays that thing. The other guitarist, Mark Lucas, stuck primarily with the electric guitar, playing and singing a moving country song I'd never heard before, something about living and dying with the choices we make. The "Barleen Twins" may not be the strongest vocalists I've ever heard, but they're very good, make the very most of their talent, and are well complemented by the other musicians.
But there was a thief at the Opry this night. His name was Kevin Huang, and he stole the stage several times with his phenomenal and somewhat manic violin play. Dude is a Juilliard graduate, so I'm guessing this wasn't his only gig. Hell, he made me tired just watching him.
But of course, the star of the show is the multi-faceted George Staerkel. There was what seemed to be 100 instruments of that stage, and he played all of them. In one stretch, he played Christmas carols on seventeen woodwind and brass instruments in a row. It was just phenomenal! He plays the biggest-ass saxophone I've ever seen, ostensibly one of only four like it in the whole USA. It played a note so low I was afraid the windows would all shatter, and looked something like this. I was most impressed, however, when he produced Tex Beneke's alto sax, the one he played on Glenn Miller's In The Mood. George apparently purchased the instrument from Beneke's widow.
Oh, and did I mention he played Amazing Grace on a 14' long alphorn? Now, that's amazing.
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Say it ain't so.....PLEASE.
So The Crime Dog was less than thrilled by the prospect of sitting through a show loaded with Branson wannabes, along with a multi-state consortium of blue hairs and RV jockeys.
But what the hell? I love pretty much any live music, and besides, it's a Christmas show. How bad can it be? So off we went last night to burgeoning and cosmopolitan Apache Junction. At least it was after dark, so maybe I wouldn't be dodging golf carts and those bicycles with 10' orange flags, towing golf clubs.
TFMCD and I were the youngest people in the joint, by a good 20 years. The theater is bare-bones, consisting of a big room with a bunch of long tables and folding chairs. It looked like a church social.
Please, God. Don't let them ask me to bless the food.
But, much to my surprise: They have a bar! Over in the corner, plenty of cold beer, get 'em now cause the bar closes when the show starts, pal. The food showed up, looking only marginally better than something from a high-school cafeteria. But I was hungry, and have never been accused of being picky, so I first selected the least attractive thing on the plate: coleslaw. Hell, I don't even like good coleslaw, but my theory was that by picking the worst first, the rest might be passable in comparison. Down the hatch.
Whoa! What's this? Can it be? This stuff is actually GOOD??
OK, beginner's luck. I'll take a hit of the mashed potatoes. Surely, they are of the "just add boiling water" variety. Better suited for school paste, no doubt.
Hmmmm. Delicious. Two for two. What manner of outrage is this?
The roast beef was tender, juicy, and tasty. The gravy? Top notch. Now, I ain't talking' mom's roast beast here, but this was easily among the best mass-produced and mass-served dinners I've ever had. And we hadn't even gotten to the entertainment yet.
Guitarist Bill Wells is a delight - especially on his instrumental version of Jose Feliciano's Feliz Navidad. He plays several different guitars, including a double neck, and has a fun stage presence. I was able to chat briefly with him during the intermission, and he seemed to be a genuinely nice and engaging guy. I wish he would teach me how he plays that thing. The other guitarist, Mark Lucas, stuck primarily with the electric guitar, playing and singing a moving country song I'd never heard before, something about living and dying with the choices we make. The "Barleen Twins" may not be the strongest vocalists I've ever heard, but they're very good, make the very most of their talent, and are well complemented by the other musicians.
But there was a thief at the Opry this night. His name was Kevin Huang, and he stole the stage several times with his phenomenal and somewhat manic violin play. Dude is a Juilliard graduate, so I'm guessing this wasn't his only gig. Hell, he made me tired just watching him.
But of course, the star of the show is the multi-faceted George Staerkel. There was what seemed to be 100 instruments of that stage, and he played all of them. In one stretch, he played Christmas carols on seventeen woodwind and brass instruments in a row. It was just phenomenal! He plays the biggest-ass saxophone I've ever seen, ostensibly one of only four like it in the whole USA. It played a note so low I was afraid the windows would all shatter, and looked something like this. I was most impressed, however, when he produced Tex Beneke's alto sax, the one he played on Glenn Miller's In The Mood. George apparently purchased the instrument from Beneke's widow.
Oh, and did I mention he played Amazing Grace on a 14' long alphorn? Now, that's amazing.
